Rating MA - Mature content such as heavy angst, death and Inuyasha’s mouth.

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Merry Christmas!

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Prologue

December 2017

Kagome stared at the amber liquor swirling in her glass. The old saying about finding the truth in the bottle came to her mind and she wondered if the saying was true for the glass as well. She hoped it would help wash away her pain and worries for at least a night. She was tremendously tired of suffering. Maybe the alcohol would help.

She chuckled mentally at the foolishness of it all, and took a swing from the glass, cringing at the taste. The strong beverage flamed her throat, burning a fire way down her chest and into her stomach, not being able to get rid of the stone sitting there. Tears pricked her eyes, and she coughed a few times. It didn't help, the pain intensified with each second.

It hurt so much that even the whiskey couldn’t numb the pain. Her breathing was hard, and every new inhale felt like ice daggers piercing her chest. She covered her nose and mouth with her trembling hand and did her best to suppress her crying. Biting her lips, with her cold fingers she pinched her nose, hoping that the lack of air will stop the sobs that were trying to erupt from her chest. She almost lost the fight when a wave of youki brushed along her senses.

Her heart increased its beat, fluttering like a bird with broken wings and she could swear it travelled up her throat. ‘What is he doing here?’ She asked herself, knowing he never visited such places. He was too proud, too aristocratic to lower himself to go to a middle class bar.

Panicking, Kagome didn’t know what to do. Should she stay? Leave? Maybe he won’t recognize her? It's been, what? Six years? Yes, it had been six years since she last saw him.

‘Maybe he will go away?’ All hope was lost when he approached her, and sat down next to her.

“Sesshoumaru,” she nodded towards him, putting an emotionally detached facade on. The same mask she learned from him, because of him, when he... Kagome shook her head, mentally dismissing the memories.

“Hn,” was the argumentative reply, and she chuckled humorlessly.

“Life has been treating you well, you haven’t changed,” she told him, and avoided looking at him. She inspected the walls covered with wooden planes as well as the bartender who seemed to always wipe the glasses.

“You look...” he inspected her profile, and she turned to look him in the eye despite knowing that it would hurt, “...adequate,” he finished. Kagome gulped down the pain at hearing his voice.

“You were always good at lies; I look like shit,” she snorted looking at his long elegant fingers that grabbed the glass of whiskey that appeared before him. ‘When did he order? Or can the bartender read minds?’ She asked herself, but then decided it didn’t matter. The pain was too raw even after so many years.

Taking a look at him, seeing his handsome face she felt her resolve shattering. The pain in her chest squeezed her insides making it hard to breathe. Seeing him brought up those memories that she tried so hard to suppress. But she lost the fight and her mind unwillingly travelled in time, to those events six years ago and her life replayed like a movie.